The aim of the program is to further develop and maintain at a Center in Cali, Colombia, a facility and organization that will accommodate and encourage through collaborative efforts of the faculties of Tulane University and Universidad del Valle, high-quality research and research experience in the health related sciences. The major areas of research are in nutrition, social and behavioral sciences, parasitology, and other infectious diseases, and child health. In the further development of the Center, its special advantages with respect to environmental (geographic, sociological) conditions and circumstances will be examined as a specific element of the program's structure, for the purpose of offering American biomedical scientists the opportunity to gain a special knowledge of the health problems peculiar to the region, and the conditions and circumstances which give rise to them, and to encourage participation in the search for solutions to these problems, the ultimate goal of the program being to increase the number of biomedical scientists who have special knowledge of the health problems of the region and have acquired a lasting interest in the assessment and solution of international biomedical problems through research.